TMCnet Feature

Amazon's Jeff Bezos Says Delivery Drones Are Coming

Ever the showman, Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos did not disappoint as he appeared on 60 minutes. Bezo’s used the opportunity to introduce Amazon’s latest creation: delivery drones that are capable of delivering packages that weigh under 5 pounds to the consumers house in under a half of an hour.

Technically these drones are called octocopters and they are an integral part of the company’s “Amazon Prime Air" program. The drones are placed at the end of conveyer belts waiting to pick up packages. According to Bezos, 86 percent of the packages that Amazon delivers are under 5 pounds. The drones can carry the packages up to 10 miles from the warehouse where the order was filled.

The company has to work out regulations and find a way to prevent packages from being dropped on someone’s head as they fly over before they can be sent into action.

“The hard part here is putting in all the redundancy, all the reliability, all the systems you need to say, 'Look, this thing can't land on somebody's head while they're walking around their neighborhood,” Bezos said.

Once these issues are dealt with Bezos has promised that Amazon will have a fleet of shipping drones taking to the sky for deliveries. Each octocopter would be entirely autonomous. The drones will simply be loaded with GPS coordinates then off on its own it will go.

During the 60 minute segment Bezo recalled how, over 18 years ago, he drove packages to the post office himself. Bezo explained that Amazon is four or five years from drones actually delivering small packages right to consumers front door due largely to the fact that the company has to work with the FAA to ensure it can legally run the Prime Air Program.

Bezo was confident that the issues with the FAA would work out stating, "It will work, and it will happen, and it's going to be a lot of fun."